Oh, those  dangers of outsourcing, part VI

Picture credit: http://www.touchsupport.com/
It's one of the first TCO (total cost of ownership) studies of outsourced help-desk support that I've seen. And if follows closely on the heels of various corporate moves to bring help-desk support back to the States:

Management consultancy Compass conducted a global desktop study over four years to the end of 2004, and found that outsourcing can result in hidden costs through the increasing amount of self-support end users are forced to undertake... ...The study revealed self-support costs increase as more desktop support is outsourced, from £214 per user if 10 per cent of the desktop service is outsourced to £672 per user if 40 per cent of the service is outsourced...

Silicon.com: Outsourcing can triple desktop support costs